follows on nicely from the last Spatialworlds posting on the Interconnection concept. What better way could there be than have the students actually connect with students from around the world. No longer do we have to just talk about other parts of the world, in a geography class, we can electronically interact, talk with and even see others from around the world in real time. In the article Rita says:

"Schools and teachers must be challenged to use the tools and techniques of today, not the ones of the past. Learning in the 21st century requires critical thinking, adept use of technology, and global collaboration, and we should offer all these to our students on a regular basis. Let's make the best possible uses of the new tools available to us so that our students are better prepared to participate in the global community."

The article provides some great ideas to engage students in meaningful learning using the technologies listed on this posting. For example:"Teachers can assign students in small groups or pairs to searchthe site's list of teachersfrom 200 countries and territories for a classroom with which they might connect. An automatic translator on the ePals site enables students to communicate with students in China, Korea, Japan, or other countries whose language they do not know. Students in the two classes could use the free SchoolBlog to post questions and photos that they can set to be visible to the two classes only. A rich international discussion can arise from simply comparing one's school and community with that of another. Students can also share their stories by creating documentaries about their schools, homes, and communities. For example, students in rural Senegal, working with the CyberSmart 21st Century Initiative, created these videos documenting their daily lives."

Here are some of the great resources now available for
students to connect with other students around the world. This list is by no
means exhaustive but it is a start on the software/sites and link conduits available
for classrooms to connect (mostly freer!)

Global SchoolNet's mission is to support 21st century
learning and improve academic performance through content-driven collaboration.
We engage educators and students in meaningful e-learning projects worldwide.

A recurring theme and key concept of the Australian Curriculum:
Geography is Interconnection.

“The concept of interconnection emphasises that no object of
geographical study can be viewed in isolation. It is about the ways that
geographical phenomena are connected to each other through environmental
processes, the movement of people, flows of trade and investment, the purchase
of goods and services, cultural influences, the exchange of ideas and
information, political power and international agreements. Interconnections can
be complex, reciprocal or interdependent, and have a strong influence on the
characteristics of places.”Australian Curriculum:
Geography draft August 2012

A previous Spatialworlds posting explored the concept
of Interdependence when looking at the Kony 2012 phenomenon. As geography
teachers and users of spatial technology we are constantly deconstructing our
world for students to see that nothing is simple and everything is interconnected,
often interdependent and extremely complex. The fact we have a world of order
out of the complexities created by interconnection is amazing. The following
resource called ‘I, Pencil’ is a fantastic expose on these issues, using the
simple pencil (not so simple!) to show the role geography plays in explaining the
complexities of our world.

* I, Smartphone" is a video based on the
essay "I, Pencil" penned by Leonard Read in 1958. This video provides
the opportunity to extend the discussion to the more complex Smartphone in
terms of technology, but maybe the geography no more complex than the pencil?

The concept of scale is an important part of our understanding of geography
in the Australian Curriculum. A previous Spatialworlds posting explored the
concept of scale. This posting is focussing on the 'zoom' aspect of geography.
That is, the constant zooming in and out of the things we engage with as geographers.
One minute we may be looking at the distribution of rubbish in the school
grounds, next recycling depots in our city, then the location of nuclear waste
in Australia, the the countries of the world using nuclear power. In no order, we zoom
in and out from the local to global, to regional to national to local. In the UK there is a drive to include a zoom to the world of personal geography. Whilst a
talking point amongst academic geographers, such geography of personalisation
is increasingly being seen as engaging and highly relevant geography for young
people. To make the geography authentic and personalised such an approach is
being advocated as a necessary pedagogical approach in the teaching of
geography. Hopefully the Australian Curriculum: Geography provides plenty of opportunities
for teachers to teach through the personal scale to engage and help students to relate
to geography as a useful and relevant subject.We choose examples and case
studies at different scales to elaborate, engage and enhance what we are looking at
geographically. After a while students get used to this constant changing of
scale and become familiar with making maps at different scales. Naturally such
scale perception and representation is a geographical skill that needs to be
developed and guided. Zooming adds to the dynamics and multi-dimensions of geographical learning and teaching. We do not study geography at one scale and all scales we zoom in and out of are interconnected and interdependent of each other. As a geographer we do not just study the horizontal spatial interconnections between places but also the interconnection between scales. For example what is the global scale impact on the national and local sales. An interesting question in this 21st Century world of globalisation and glocalisationFor this posting I thought it would be interesting to
list some sites that can be used as case studies at different
scales and to demonstrate the
zooming dimension of scale in geographical thinking.

* Zooming into mapsThis US resource uses maps help students make sense of our world at all scales. A sampling of the Library of Congress Geographies map division 4.5 million treasures has been digitized and is available from 1500-2003. This resource introduces historical maps from the American Memory collections.

* Personalising your travel around the globeSelect the countries you've visited and produce a
map of the world with those countries in red. Make a
1-feature world map by simply clicking on a checklist all of the countries you
want highlighted on your map.

* BBC's Urban Growth interactive mapThis map uses the Gall-Peters projection, rather than the Gall projection usually used by the BBC. All flat, rectangular maps of the Earth contain some distortion of land size, shape and distance between countries. The Peters Projection minimises the distortion to land area, enabling the best comparison between regional populations and the size of the land masses they live on.* Global Climate Change: An interactive videoA resource on climate change from the Council
on Foreign Relations (independent think tank). The interactive video covers
many of the geopolitical, economic and environmental issues that confront the
Earth as global temperatures rise. Rather than produce a full length feature
film, they have organized the this as an interactive video, allowing the user
to get short (a couple of minutes) answer to specific questions about the
science, foreign policy or economic ramifications of adapting to climate change.

The hunger crisis in the Sahel region of Senegal,
Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad has been deepening since the
start of this year. Explore the map to see how it has been covered by The Guardian
newspaper.

* The local scale: What would disappear?An interactive showing what areas (in over 20
cities around the U.S.) would be under water if the ocean levels rose 5 feet?
12 feet? 25 feet? The maps show "coastal and low-lying areas that would be
permanently flooded without engineered protection.

Combining cartographic expertise and a desire to start
geography education at a very early age, the founders of Kids Placemaps have
personalized a child's geography in a tangible, simple fashion.

* The Living Geography blogA great resource for teachers to use to peronalise geography and find hundreds of great geography teaching resources.

* The GA's Living Geography resource'Living Geography' aims to meet the challenge of engaging students with innovative and enjoyable learning that embraces their own perceptions of change in the local environment.

A great opportunity to learn how to use ArcGIS Online (tailored
for K-12 educators).

* Boundary dancingAn animated GIF to show the expansion of the US over time. An interesting resource for historical geography and the change concept over space.

* Digital citizenshipHere are 10 on-line interactive lession by Google on digital citizenship* History PinThis is historical geography powered by collaborative mapping that is infused with social media dynamics. Backed by Google, they are geo-tagging old photos to recreate the historical geographies of all places and comparing them with current street view images.Watch the video on this great resouce for geography and history teaching.* Spatial technology and electionsThis article harks back to a previous Spatialworlds posting on the power of spatial technology but also its intrusion on provacy and safety of individuals.

Take advantage of resources that provide you access to free
courses from some of the world's best universities and institutions. Learn GIS
on your own or supplement your existing geospatial education with these free resources.

*The “death of distance” has been much
exaggerated.: Geography
matters as much as ever, despite the digital revolution. A great article
exploring the impact of technology on tradition spatial considerations. Makes
one think?

Click on the map to get latitude and longitude in both
decimal degrees and DMS (degrees, minutes and seconds). You can also
quickly enter coordinates in either format an have the location displayed on
the map.

*NASA’s “Spot the Station”will text or email you when the space station passes over your Home. Just provide NASA with your location and email/text address.
They’ll then ping you when the space station next passes over your home.
Not necessarily geography but space fun.

As
discussed in a previous Spatialworlds posting, the introduction of the
Australian Curriculum: Geography with specified content must not see the end of
one of the most attractive and important parts of geography in the classroom,
the ability of geography to be spontaneous and respond to what is happening in
the world. Over the past months many things of
significance have happened in the world. However four events stand out and as a result there is a
plethora of maps, articles and even resources on-line for teachers to use to
study the events in the geography classroom. Here are just four of the
biggies!! By no means the only world events that could be studied by a geography class in real time.

1. Hurricane Sandy: A media frenzy occurs after such a disaster,
but what great classroom resources to teach about the event!

The typical red state/blue state map conceals much
concerning the spatial voting patterns in the United States and fails to
account for the population densities of these distributions. Really show what happened
spatially.

4. And lets not forget about the London Olympics in July. What a wonderful chance this was to do some geography.Not wanting to wish disaster or tedium on anyone, but I am sure there will be a number 5 and then 6 cataclysmic and/or significant world event in coming months. Always a good opportuntiy to do some good geography and make some interesting spatial representations for the spontaneous geography classroom.

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Who am I?

I have taught history, geography and civics and citizenship in the South Australian education system since 1976. I have been actively involved in the promotion of geography and history over the years, in particular the use of spatial technology in schools. I am a Past Chair of the Australian Geography Teachers' Association (Chair 2008-13) and Immediate Past President of the Australian Alliance of Associations in Education (2013-present). During the development of the Australian Curriculum: Geography I was a member of the ACARA Advisory Panel (2009-2013) and Executive Director of the ESA GeogSpace project. From 2007-2011 and in 2015 I was the Manager for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) in the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (DECD). Presently I am a Teaching Academic in HaSS Education at the University of South Australia and the Manager for the Premier's ANZAC Spirit School Prize in DECD.